SageAgainstTheMachine

Two long suffering franchises that now see just a glimmer of hope. Buffalo off of a win against the world champs. Cleveland 2-0 since they appeared to tank the season. There may be 11 games left after this one, but neither team has the talent to overcome a 2-3 start (in my opinion). The Bills will win if their defense steps up again. Time to nip Brian Hoyer's magic carpet ride in the bud.

In what sense?

I like Chandler. I cited his stats mainly to illustrate that our greatest effort by a TE in over a decade was merely above average.

Scott Chandler had a decent season for a tight end last year, with 43 receptions for 571 yards. Good for 14th in the NFL. This year he's on pace for roughly the same. Want to know the sad part? That 14th place effort represented the most yardage accumulated by a Bills tight end since Jay Riemersma had 590 in 2001. A dozen years and 11 losing seasons ago. Those dozen years saw several regimes of quarterbacks, head coaches and general managers. Is it a sheer coincidence that Buffalo has never caught on to an overt trend in the NFL or does the old man himself undervalue the position? (And it ain't bad luck. In that time, the Bills have spent no higher than a 3rd round draft pick on a tight end nor have they acquired a recognized talent through free agency.) To me it's alarming. Look at the good teams around the league. Which of them doesn't have a vertical threat at tight end? Only Seattle comes to mind and they are the rare team left with a great defense. (Note: This isn't really about Chandler, who I think is a solid contributor. It's about why the hell haven't we gotten with the program?)

If the Bills stop short by benching Spiller, there's a chance the coaching staff might get desperate and put him in again. I say they execute him.

I wonder what the most common score is in the NFL over the past decade or so. 24-21? 13-9 isn't what I'd call absurd but it certainly doesn't give very much credit to an offense that hasn't scored fewer than 20.

Super mario won the TBD game ball easily in week 2. Who deserves it this week? As much as I love the growing legends of Alonso and Woods, Aaron Williams stepped up in a gigantic way for a secondary that might be the most injury-depleted unit in the NFL.

I love 'em. When the Bills game starts at 4:00, I can just enjoy the 1:00 game that I watch. When the Bills play a 1:00 game I'm either too up or too down to just relax and watch the next game.

That's a big time stroke of luck - 5 weeks in and the best WR we face is Torrey Smith.

I believe that would have been assessed on the kick off.

This argument was used a lot when Lee Evans' career took a nose dive. Good deep threats often act as diversions, yes, to occupy a CB and a safety. But don't we want a guy that can actually catch the ball too?

I know we're better because there's no glaring weakness. There are weaknesses (our secondary might be exposed against some of the better passing offenses) but nothing that screams "that's the worst !@#$ing unit in the league!" like years past.

Teams convert 2 pointers at a significantly higher than 50% rate. They should happen more often based on the expected yield, but coaches are afraid of looking dumb when they fail. (Which isn't to say there's never merit to the 1 sure point)

Our best players played their best and it was just enough to overcome some dumb-assery by the lesser knowns. Who was the best of the best?

A very good English professor once advised the class to never use etcetera in one's writing (and by extension, equivalent phrases like "the list goes on and on"). It conveys very effectively that you've run out of items to list.

The look on Hank's face when he realized he'd been beaten....of course, we know that Walt is running scared with heavy ammunition in less than a year.

Despite the perennial suckitude, there's only a 1 in 16,384 chance that the division would match up for 7 consecutive seasons.

This comes up every once in a while. I agree in principle that it seems like 32 guys in the world could master both skills. But for pragmatic purposes, are you really going to value that extra LB or WR on the roster when you're losing an average of 5 yards on every punt or missing 30% of your FG's? Every roster spot is a matter of opportunity cost.

What?

"I'm a Dapper Dan man." O, Brother has perhaps the greatest sound track of any movie too.

Yep, because sexual attraction amounts to the totality of emotional intimacy. Also, everybody perceives the world the same, so what the hell is he thinking?

"I hope everybody could get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of, so they can see that it's not the answer." - Jim Carrey Here's hoping the big guy gets to step off this particular emotional roller coaster soon.

The show died the minute that Steve Carell left (and his exit episode would have been an awesome series finale to boot). Oh well.

Offseason...

I'm anticipating a similar record to the last few years, but a more entertaining journey to get there.